I'm just a 15 year old high school student in the Philadelphia suburbs with a love for food. I have an apprenticeship at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse, and will be writing about my experiences there, as well as anything else that strikes my palate.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Night at Penn

So last night I went to University of Pennsylvania for this big annual concert called Spring Fling and spent the night afterwards.

Immediately noticed the dearth of good places to eat that were open late on campus. There was a Wawa and a pizza place and that was about it. That's gonna be a problem next year.

Went to the Philly diner on campus for breakfast. Had a monster breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage. Wasn't great. Gonna have to discover the good places to grub on campus.

9 comments:

Emma
said...

I go to Boston University and despited being in Boston we have a similar problem, less extreme than Penn I'm sure but still present. Two pieces of advice: - Make friends with people who have kitchens or who live in buildings with kitchens. Nothing is better than a 3am drunken cookie baking fest or late night nachos.- Find places with solid food that deliver at college hours. This might take a little more work as these places might be a few towns over but it is SO worth it. Especially, during finals!

As far as freshman housing with a kitchen goes, your best bet is Mayer (which is part of Stouffer college house). It's a little known secret at Penn in some ways. Not exactly a palace, but the kitchen area is huge compared to other houses.

Day to day dining (other than from your meal plan), good places are Chipotle, Greek Lady, Hummus, Allegro Pizza, and don't overlook the food trucks. The selection of Indian & Thai food on campus is also impressive.As an almost-senior, I've had quite some time to explore the food scene at Penn and let me tell you - don't limit yourself to within the Penn bubble! Philly is such an accessible city with so many great places for weekends (but you already knew that).

You might want to check out the Penn Appetit food magazine & blog if you haven't already. I also have a restaurant blog (it's been on vacation since December but starting up again soon.) http://cuisinechicblog.blogspot.com/ Feel free to check it out.

All the restaurants under the Radian on Walnut St between 39th and 40th are pretty good, though pricey. If you'd like to have really good food that's less expensive, go a bit further to Koch's Deli (43rd and Locust, they give out free meat samples while you wait for your order) and the Manakeesh Cafe and Bakery on 45th and Walnut (heavenly flatbread, baklava and crumbly cookies). For pizza, Evan's Varsity pizza (43rd and Locust) is much tastier and much less greasy than Allegro. And food trucks are just awesome, including those around Drexel. Recommended: Hemo's, Tyson Bees, Magic Carpet, Lucky's Mexican Spot, KoJa, The Crepewalk, La Dominique, Insomnia Cookies.

If you've got money to burn, Pod has phenomenal food, right by Penn's campus. But it's not exactly everyday college student fare. I agree with the comments about food carts and kitchens. Also, learn the best places off of SEPTA, and try asking (food oriented) upperclassmen where to go. They're usually your best bet!

I've been at Penn since '05 as a med student - but I live in Center City so my access to restaurants is a little different than most Penn peeps. I will agree with Tyson Bee's (near HUP) and Kim's (near pottruck) as having good food. Going to have to give the thumbs down to the eternally-crowded Magic Carpet. Also going to have to disagree with Pod, which is way overpriced for mediocre food. They do however do all-you-can-eat sushi nights which allows you have a larger volume of mediocre food at a reasonable price, so that's worth it. I'm a fan of Distrito and Lemongrass. Oh, and thumbs down to Bobby's Burger Palace, too. My wife and I have a cute little blog - but of course, given your experience in Philly restaurants, you probably know the scene even better than we do.